Tuesday, March 1, 2011

Pilgrimage to Grand Bassin in preparation for the festival of Maha Shivratri (follow-up post is here - Maha Shivratri 2011).

Last Sunday, we set out at 6.30 am, knowing that the roads will get clogged up as most people will take advantage of the week-end. & it was at La Marie/Henrietta that we encountered the first traffic jam. Fortunately, it was only up to this junction.

Beyond that, the traffic was fluid, mainly because most of the pilgrims were going towards Grand Bassin & the few on their way home weren’t obstructing the road.

These photos don’t really show it, but there was a massive number of pilgrims on the roads with their kanwars…

Pretty soon, we reached Ganga Talao, where we were greeted by the gigantic effigy of Shiv.

While I do resent the lack of accommodation for the pilgrims (some were sleeping on the ground near the upper temple), everyone was duly satisfied by the food & refreshments provided freely by benevolent organisations… including the UOM SU.

Just before I left the place, I once again visited the 108-foot Mangal Mahadev statue.

A truly remarkable structure. I hope they do not go ahead with whatever plans they had of building a similar statue next it. The Mangal Mahadev is unique & should remain so…

… looking over the incessant flow of pilgrims converging towards Ganga Talao. A beacon of hope for tired legs.

amazing pics mannn.... well, i went there the same day as yours but left home at 00:30 am and reached there at 1.30 am. well, the traffic was really fluid... after 1 hr prayer, left there and returned home at 4 am...had to pass though Bios-Cheri...Brittanica..etc... Well, ur pics are really high quality! Keep it up!